The Glory of God

[Sean James]

The full value of a soul can be fully known only by looking to Jesus, the One who paid for us and offers us an eternity with Him! Oh, how Christ longed for His people in Jerusalem, which is also a symbol of His longing for the souls of the entire world. Christ paid the price. Let us count the cost and realize our true value as we look to Jesus and abide in Him in a full-heart surrender!

Jerusalem had been the child of His care, and as a tender father mourns over a wayward son, so Jesus wept over the beloved city. How can I give thee up? How can I see thee devoted to destruction? Must I let thee go to fill up the cup of thine iniquity? One soul is of such value that, in comparison with it, worlds sink into insignificance; but here was a whole nation to be lost. When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem's day of grace would be ended. While the procession was halting on the brow of Olivet, it was not yet too late for Jerusalem to repent. The angel of mercy was then folding her wings to step down from the golden throne to give place to justice and swift-coming judgment. But Christ's great heart of love still pleaded for Jerusalem, that had scorned His mercies, despised His warnings, and was about to imbrue her hands in His blood. If Jerusalem would but repent, it was not yet too late. While the last rays of the setting sun were lingering on temple, tower, and pinnacle, would not some good angel lead her to the Saviour's love, and avert her doom? Beautiful and unholy city, that had stoned the prophets, that had rejected the Son of God, that was locking herself by her impenitence in fetters of bondage,--her day of mercy was almost spent!
   
There is still time for us to turn fully to Christ. Probation is still open and people can still come to repentance, but Christ is about to complete His work as our High Priest (and close probation for repentance) and return to this world as a King (to rescue those who have received the gift of repentance)! Only those who behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world and receive the divine nature by grace through faith which is manifest in all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be able to stand when probation closes, for they have washed the robes of their character in Christ's blood and made them white. We can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony!

[Sean James]

Let us look to Jesus and choose to make the best use of the time He gives us in our probation. We each can choose Christ and by choosing to surrender fully to Christ, allow Him to live out His life in us by grace through faith so that all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing! We can only bear fruit by abiding in Christ!

In every age there is given to men their day of light and privilege, a probationary time in which they may become reconciled to God. But there is a limit to this grace. Mercy may plead for years and be slighted and rejected; but there comes a time when mercy makes her last plea. The heart becomes so hardened that it ceases to respond to the Spirit of God. Then the sweet, winning voice entreats the sinner no longer, and reproofs and warnings cease.

May God's Spirit not cease to lead us to repentance as we choose to listen to His still, small voice today! May our earnest desire be to do His will so His plans may come to pass!

[Sean James]

What is your foundation? What is your security? In a world where EVERYTHING is changing SO QUICKLY, what can we safely depend upon when we are tempted, tried, and in difficulty? What is the only source of enduring strength for now and forever?

"He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He" (Deuteronomy 32:4). We must come to Jesus, the Rock, the Word who cannot fail us! "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31).

Upon this living stone, Jews and Gentiles alike may build. This is the only foundation upon which we may securely build. It is broad enough for all, and strong enough to sustain the weight and burden of the whole world. And by connection with Christ, the living stone, all who build upon this foundation become living stones. Many persons are by their own endeavors hewn, polished, and beautified; but they cannot become "living stones," because they are not connected with Christ. Without this connection, no man can be saved. Without the life of Christ in us, we cannot withstand the storms of temptation. Our eternal safety depends upon our building upon the sure foundation. Multitudes are today building upon foundations that have not been tested. When the rain falls, and the tempest rages, and the floods come, their house will fall, because it is not founded upon the eternal Rock, the chief cornerstone Christ Jesus. 

Jesus invites us ALL to come--no matter what we have done or are struggling with in our lives. There is no sinner too deep in sin for Him to redeem; there is no illness too grievous for Him to heal, there is no shame too great for Him to remove and crown the life with honor and glory! Come to Christ as you are but EXPECT Him to transform your life because He has promised to do so! "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

[Sean James]

With so many winds of doctrine that tend to lead away from a simple, childlike trust of the word of God as it reads, we would do well to learn from the time in which Jesus lived and reflect on how Scripture was often misunderstood because of unbelief and hypocrisy. At Jesus' time there were Pharisees and Sadducees, and while the Pharisees often were arraigned by Jesus for their hypocrisy (teaching one thing and doing another), the Sadducees were arraigned by Christ for their unbelief of the word of God. Both could come to Christ and be saved if they would surrender the whole heart to Christ and let Him lead them into all truth, but they would need to surrender their own plans and purposes to be in harmony with God's word. So it is still. Let us accept God's word and allow Jesus to lead our lives according to His word as our standard. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).

The Sadducees had flattered themselves that they of all men adhered most strictly to the Scriptures. But Jesus showed that they had not known their true meaning. That knowledge must be brought home to the heart by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Their ignorance of the Scriptures and the power of God He declared to be the cause of their confusion of faith and darkness of mind. They were seeking to bring the mysteries of God within the compass of their finite reasoning. Christ called upon them to open their minds to those sacred truths that would broaden and strengthen the understanding. Thousands become infidels because their finite minds cannot comprehend the mysteries of God. They cannot explain the wonderful exhibition of divine power in His providences, therefore they reject the evidences of such power, attributing them to natural agencies which they can comprehend still less. The only key to the mysteries that surround us is to acknowledge in them all the presence and power of God. Men need to recognize God as the Creator of the universe, One who commands and executes all things. They need a broader view of His character, and of the mystery of His agencies.

We cannot fully understand everything, because God is infinite and we are finite. We need to accept the one principle of taking God's word as it reads, and also making the service and honor of God supreme so that perplexities may vanish, and we may find a plain path before our feet! Then, as we obey God's word as it reads because Jesus lives in our hearts by a true conversion experience whereby all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing, we can be kept from the snares of Satan in the form of winds of doctrine that lead away from God's word in its true context. Let us look to Jesus in all His loveliness and realize that when met with controversy, He did not enter into controversy, but called His hearers and questioners to answer their own questions from the word of God.

[Sean James]

It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth. Not the great things which every eye sees and every tongue praises does God account most precious. The little duties cheerfully done, the little gifts which make no show, and which to human eyes may appear worthless, often stand highest in His sight. A heart of faith and love is dearer to God than the most costly gift. The poor widow gave her living to do the little that she did. She deprived herself of food in order to give those two mites to the cause she loved. And she did it in faith, believing that her heavenly Father would not overlook her great need. It was this unselfish spirit and childlike faith that won the Saviour's commendation.

[Sean James]

Christ said: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto Me” (John 12:32).

As the word “men” is supplied in the translation, Christ’s sacrifice was really to reach the whole universe in regard to God’s true character.

But the work of human redemption is not all that is accomplished by the cross. The love of God is manifested to the universe. The prince of this world is cast out. The accusations which Satan has brought against God are refuted. The reproach which he has cast upon heaven is forever removed. Angels as well as men are drawn to the Redeemer. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth," He said, "will draw all unto Me."

Let us be drawn by Christ and reflect His true character—all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in complete surrender of our heart in affectionate obedience to God’s law of love!

[Sean James]

Happy new year 2021! Jesus is coming again, and we can see the signs of the times around us! But let us remember that Christ is preparing us to share the message of the everlasting gospel by life and character and message so all the world may know that God is able to finish what He started in the plan of redemption and glorify His character to the onlooking universe! As we behold the loveliness of Jesus, yielding the whole heart to Him, we are given a new heart that He fills with all of the fruits of the Spirit so that not one is missing! What a privilege!

Everything in the world is in agitation. The signs of the times are ominous. Coming events cast their shadows before. The Spirit of God is withdrawing from the earth, and calamity follows calamity by sea and by land. There are tempests, earthquakes, fires, floods, murders of every grade. Who can read the future? Where is security? There is assurance in nothing that is human or earthly. Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen. Restlessly are they waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are waiting and watching and working for our Lord's appearing. Another class are falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. Few believe with heart and soul that we have a hell to shun and a heaven to win. 
     
Yet in an agitated world we may have peace from God, love in the heart for all, and a joy that is not from this earth! Look up, for the promises of God cannot and will not fail the weakest soul who comes to Christ by grace through faith to be saved in God's appointed way!

[Sean James]

Happy Sabbath! As you go forth to be a blessing to others this Sabbath by inviting Jesus into your heart by a living-faith surrender to His will in an intelligent appreciation of the loveliness of His character, be encouraged that Jesus will minister to you as you let Him minister through you! "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40).

Those who minister to others will be ministered unto by the Chief Shepherd. They themselves will drink of the living water, and will be satisfied. They will not be longing for exciting amusements, or for some change in their lives. The great topic of interest will be, how to save the souls that are ready to perish. Social intercourse will be profitable. The love of the Redeemer will draw hearts together in unity.
   
True unity is from union and communion with Christ! We were created to bless others and our greatest happiness is found in being a blessing to others as Jesus has come to bless us, too!

[Sean James]

Selflessness is bliss. Implicit surrender to God will is the true path of eternal life. We are moved by beholding the loveliness of Jesus and in perfect acquiescence to Him there is perfect rest in our soul. Let us abide in Him and overcome by His divine grace! Complete union and communion with Christ means that we experience all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing!

Again and again Jesus had tried to establish this principle among His disciples. When James and John made their request for pre-eminence, He had said, "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister." Matthew 20:26. In My kingdom the principle of preference and supremacy has no place. The only greatness is the greatness of humility. The only distinction is found in devotion to the service of others.

Let us go forth to bless by letting Christ the source of all blessings abide in us on a moment-by-moment basis!

[Sean James]

Have you ever dealt with depression and discouragement? All of this Someone has already experienced more deeply than you can ever fully know. Let all the depression and discouragement that you may tempted to yield to today be rolled upon Jesus, fully, who bore it for us in Gethsemane and chose to save us from our wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked condition in sin to give us the cup of salvation. As we contemplate how much we are loved by God the Father who would send His Son to suffer and die for us, as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our characters into the image of Christ by receiving all of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives without one missing in true conversion, let us remember the cost of our salvation and appreciate the love of God for a world that did not love Him. It is as we behold Him that love awakens in our hearts, for only by love is love awakened. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

Christ's agony did not cease, but His depression and discouragement left Him. The storm had in nowise abated, but He who was its object was strengthened to meet its fury. He came forth calm and serene. A heavenly peace rested upon His bloodstained face. He had borne that which no human being could ever bear; for He had tasted the sufferings of death for every man. 

As we taste and see that the Lord is good today, we can be encouraged to know that nothing is too great for Jesus to bear, for He has already passed through Gethsemane and He already died for us at Calvary. As we look away from self to Jesus, we find strength to resist evil in the aggressive service of pointing souls to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

[Sean James]

Wide awake, praying, and beholding Jesus is how our Heavenly Father would have us be living as we approach the final events of the last days. Peter's fall and failure to watch and pray in the garden is left on record to help us to navigate away from the condition that led him to deny Jesus. We are nearing the heavenly home, but the great storm of temptations climaxing in the time of trouble will grow more intense to prove to the universe that God's grace is powerful enough to produce and sustain His people who profit from His word and choose to be continual partakers of the divine nature, thus manifesting all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in obedience to God's law of love even when Christ's mediation in the heavenly sanctuary comes to a close! This is so Christ may come to take us home to heaven as He is our conquering King! Let us heed the lesson: "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is" (Mark 13:33).

It was in sleeping when Jesus bade him watch and pray that Peter had prepared the way for his great sin. All the disciples, by sleeping in that critical hour, sustained a great loss. Christ knew the fiery ordeal through which they were to pass. He knew how Satan would work to paralyze their senses that they might be unready for the trial. Therefore it was that He gave them warning. Had those hours in the garden been spent in watching and prayer, Peter would not have been left to depend upon his own feeble strength. He would not have denied his Lord. Had the disciples watched with Christ in His agony, they would have been prepared to behold His suffering upon the cross. They would have understood in some degree the nature of His overpowering anguish. They would have been able to recall His words that foretold His sufferings, His death, and His resurrection. Amid the gloom of the most trying hour, some rays of hope would have lighted up the darkness and sustained their faith.

Unlike Peter who had a "second chance" after denying Jesus, there will not be a "second chance" during time of trouble when probation has closed for the world, and the final declaration is made: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still" (Revelation 22:11). Thankfully, God is giving us the "second chance" now to learn wherein we fail, and then guard ourselves, overcoming by the grace of Christ through the blood of the Lamb and by the word of the testimony entrusted to us! This is the grand finale of the universe, so let us be all we can possibly be for the glory of God because Jesus suffered so much for us to make us one with Him and enjoy Him forever!

[Sean James]

Happy Sabbath!!

There is a perfect example of how God's people can face the anarchy and confusion of the last days that is increasing rapidly. We see in Jesus' character a living invitation to abide in His patience that is the outflow of the divine nature accessible to us by the "exceeding great and precious promises" of God (2 Peter 1:4), thus linking us with all of the fruits of "the Spirit" without one missing (Galatians 5:22-23) as long as we are completely surrendered to have Christ live in us, "the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27)! Accepting Christ's cleansing blood in the experience of true repentance, the Holy Spirit produces in us a "new heart" (Ezekiel 36:26) so that the fallen nature in league with the evil heart of unbelief that is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9) will not be manifest even by a thought to corrupt the witness that Christ will produce in those who look unto Him as the "Author and Finisher" (Hebrews 12:2) of the genuine faith experience that led Him to Calvary to die as our Sacrifice and offer us an eternity with Him!

"Herod with his men of war set Him at nought, and mocked Him, and arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe." The Roman soldiers joined in this abuse. All that these wicked, corrupt soldiers, helped on by Herod and the Jewish dignitaries, could instigate was heaped upon the Saviour. Yet His divine patience failed not. 

When the storm of temptation seems beyond your capacity to bear, behold Jesus in His exceedingly great loveliness of character; yield fully to Him and let Him live out His life within you! He will keep you from falling because His grace is stronger than sin, and His power is greater than that of Satan who was defeated at Calvary when Christ proclaimed "It is finished" (John 19:30). May you today let Christ fulfill His promises in you as you look away from yourself to His word that cannot fail and that will not pass away!   

[Sean James]

The greatest pain felt and known to a depth that is beyond human comprehension by Jesus Christ at Calvary was on account of His separation from God because of sin. Here He experienced the separation that sin makes between the soul and God, and as His Father's countenance was withdrawn from Him, Jesus' heart was pierced so deeply that the physical anguish He was enduring was barely felt. Oh, let us contemplate more of the cost of our salvation and appreciate the loveliness of Jesus, for by beholding Him we become changed, have the true motivation to surrender the entire heart and mind to Him so He can renew us and imbue us with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, and make us willing to be willing in any and every area of life and character as we approach the final moments of earth's history. Christ's sacrifice is the great impetus for us to go forth and give the last message of mercy to a world soon to perish. Sin leads to death, and Christ's death is a pledge that all who will come to Him and be saved may lay aside the habits and mindset of death to receive the very mind of Christ--which is life and peace!

Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father's mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt. 

The value of each soul can only be estimated by realizing the experience of Christ at Calvary. And as exceedingly great as was the pain of Christ in His soul, so much greater was the anguish the Father endured in seeing His Son bear the crushing weight of the sin of the world. Oh, let us appreciate how even now the Holy Spirit is laboring to bring us to an intelligent appreciation of the sacrifice made by the Godhead in saving all who will come and be saved! Look and live! Jesus is able to save the uttermost all who come unto Him!

[Sean James]

As we realize how God wins the great controversy over His character, it is helpful to realize how easily Satan could have been destroyed, but that God acts in harmony with His character to allow every being who has been given free moral agency to see clearly what is at stake and to make an intelligent decision by seeing the contrast between Christ and Satan. As we yield fully to Jesus, He blots out our sins as we have freely confessed and forsaken them and He imparts to us His very attributes--the fruits of the Spirit without one missing--so we may be a blessing to reveal God's character in this universe as witnesses!

God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan's government. The Lord's principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God's government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.

When brought into trying circumstances, let us rely implicit on the moral power of love and truth to be wrought in and through us, and in so doing allow God's plan for our life to be fulfilled!

[Sean James]

Why did Jesus die?

But it was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered "with a loud voice" (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46), at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world. 

Our sin--all of our sin--was the cause of Jesus' death. As we realize the depths to which He would go to save us, let us not become weary in well doing, knowing that in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Christ persevered to Calvary, and now He invites us to persevere in the last days that culminate in the experience of translation! Jesus is preparing witness like Enoch and Elijah who will not die! Jesus is coming and He will have living witnesses upon the earth! When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing. This is the very essence of what conversion does in taking away our sin and brining us into harmony with God. Let us appreciate the cost of our salvation and go forth to seek and save the lost as Jesus did!